Oof. That is how I will being today. I have never thought of myself as much of a pianist and the technical ability on a high performing level feels much out of reach. I hosted a recital where the fantastic Ching-Wen Hsiao played some Debussy and reminded me how much I am not a pianist. (This is a backward compliment to say that she is FANTASTIC). That being said, I do try to keep my fundamental skills and technique together by doing my scales and other exercises. Combine this with a renewed interest in piano repertoire (I have been playing through Beethoven and Gershwin for fun) and I have decided to tackle and create some etudes.
The etude, study, is usually used to enhance one’s technique. That means the piece needs to offer some technical challenge while being artistically pleasing as a piece of music. Ideally, of course. My favorite set of etudes are Ligeti’s. So good. There are others, perhaps most famously Chopin’s Etudes.
What can add to this genre? I’ve thought about it and I think there are things that I may be able to offer. This is the second of the Etudes that I plan to write and the first one that I have completed and performed. And as stated at the very beginning: oof. It was hard! The goal of the piece is to stretch your wrist motion and it certainly does that. I’m generally happy with my performance here and I hope to have a few more etude recordings posted over the next several months.
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